


Open Up My Heart

by storieswelove



Category: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
Genre: F/M, Return of the Thief spoilers, also I am forever wall to wall cousin feels and they're abound in this fic, also this has whole book spoilers, and Gen/Irene, anyway catch me in the club being emo about Sophos/Helen, b2c4 coda, it's about love!!, just be forewarned, this book made my love for Sophos and Irene's friendship just go up and up and up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:40:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27215818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/storieswelove/pseuds/storieswelove
Summary: Attolis is not the only one hurting after his trial. Away from their spouses, Sounis asks Attolia for a favor.*Missing scene fromReturn of the Thief. A coda for the trial. Hands on each other’s hearts, and all that.
Relationships: Attolia | Irene & Sophos, Eddis | Helen/Sophos
Comments: 14
Kudos: 71





	Open Up My Heart

**Author's Note:**

> My brain is a traitor and played out this entire exchange on what was supposed to be a leisurely walk home from Dunkin’. RotT really stared into my soul and I am made of Irene & Sophos and cousin feels, with a heavy side of Sophos/Helen feels so like...
> 
> Title from “I Would Do Anything For You” by Foster the People.

In the capital city of Attolia, the heat of the day was dissipating as the afternoon fast approached the bat watch of the night. Inside the Attolian palace, the high king slept in his chambers, surrounded by curtains of gold, woken only occasionally by the palace physician to apply more ice to his injuries. Nearby, deep in the heart of more lavish apartments, the king of Sounis stood before the queen of Attolia in her own audience chamber.

The queen simmered with rage. Her husband had fought thirteen men until he could not walk, could not stand, could not even crawl. Worse, he had kept the barbaric trial a secret until it was too late for his loved ones to do anything but watch. All through the day, the palace had quaked in fear of Attolia’s wrath, her usually even temper more violent than they had seen it since she had been engaged to Eugenides. Sounis would have done well to stay out of harm’s way until her anger faded — certainly the rest of the court had opted to — but he was a man on a mission. She had permitted him an audience, but he knew he worked on borrowed time. 

Sophos bowed his head. “I am here to ask a favor,” he said, voice filled with deference. Attolia sat still as a statue, watching him from her chair. She said nothing. He continued. “I believe we could all benefit from a break from dining with the court this evening.” 

Her eyes narrowed. “Sophos,” she said, bad temper bubbling in her voice. “You are asking me for permission to shirk the duties of a king?” Her patience was slim, and the short-sightedness and immaturity of her younger counterpart enraged her. To avoid public appearances might give the impression that Attolis’s injuries had taken a turn for the worse, and palace rumor was a nasty thing to temper. 

“No, I am merely suggesting, after the…” He chose his words delicately. “...Turbulence of today, that you consider—” 

But the queen had hit her breaking point. “I do not have time for games,” she said harshly, anger bubbling over and out. She raised one hand to dismiss him. 

“Gen was paying Therespides,” Sophos said quickly. 

For the space of several heartbeats, the queen was frozen, face blank, hand hovering in midair. Then, she dropped her arm and closed her eyes. With a sigh, she opened them again, looking at the king. “He was rallying them around Eddis,” she said. 

“Indeed.” Sophos’s face was solemn. Helen had been wrecked by the realization. A lifetime of protectiveness over Gen, his protectiveness for her in turn, and a reign riddled with carefully fighting her barons into submission, enduring blow after blow at their hands, had all braided together into a grief that no one person should have to bear. But Eddis, like Attolia, had never been afford the luxury of being anything other than queen first. Their own humanity always had to wait. 

Irene shook her head slowly, whether at her husband’s actions or at Eddis’s tenuous position, Sophos did not know. He continued. “We both know my queen cannot risk a single misstep after this morning, or she will lose whatever ground she and Gen have secured for her, and all of his ill-advised self-flagellation will have been for naught.” The source of Attolia’s anger was clear to Sounis, born from the feeling of helplessness of being unable to keep her husband safe from harm. He knew because he suffered through the same. Self-preservation was not abound in the Eddisian royal family.

Sophos’s own voice was harsh when he continued. “You of all people know what it is to be pushed to your limit by a gaggle of useless barons.” It was not anger with his own good-for-nothing barons, but with those of Eddis and Attolia, who had never once missed an opportunity to hurt or undermine their queens. They were foolish men who had squandered the rare gift of fair and competent rulers because they did not believe women could rule. That they might have preferred Erondites, or Sophos’s own uncle, or even Eugenides and Sophos, over Helen and Irene was a mark of their own stupidity. He’d shoot all of them, too, if he could. “Helen will not admit she needs a break, nor ask for one, but she is grieving and should be allowed to do so in peace. But it is your king, your court, and your palace, so all I can do is ask that you consider.” 

When she spoke, Attolia’s voice, though still harsh, was tinged with sadness. “We are sovereigns, Sophos. We are not afforded privacy.”

“So, so, so,” he agreed. “Which is why sometimes we must help each other.” He had reached the crux of the matter. Over the years, they had, all four of them, worked to carve out space for one another in big ways and small, slowly and ever so carefully drawing one another close. It was infinitely preferable to the isolation they had all lived in for so long. It came at a cost, but it had proved to be one they were all happy to pay. 

Sophos watched Attolia, her eyes narrowed, as terrifying as the Great Goddess she sought to emulate. She was silent once again. Sophos pressed on.

Softly, he said, “Irene, we all have breaking points. I do not think now, when the Medes are almost at our doorstep, is the time to discover where one of ours might be.” 

Attolia stared at him for a long time. Sophos mirrored her stillness as he stood, holding her gaze. Finally, voice tinged with exhaustion, she said, “Very well. We will not dine with the court this evening.” 

Sophos bowed graciously. “Thank you, Irene.” When he had straightened, they looked at each other a moment longer, in mutual understanding of love and frustration for spouses who occasionally needed protection from themselves. Then he turned to return to his queen. 

As he left, the only sounds in the royal apartments were his quietly fading footsteps, and the distinct sound of pottery crashing against a wall. 

*

Back in his own guest apartments, Sophos found his wife pouring over a stack of papers at the desk that overlooked the gardens. There was hardly a minute to waste as they readied their armies to fight against the Mede. Her head was in her hand, and even from across the room Sophos could see she absently tugged at her curls in frustration. 

Coming up behind her, he kissed the top of her head. “Working?” He rested his hands lightly on her shoulders. 

“Attempting to.” Her voice was ragged. Releasing the sheet of vellum she had been studying, she rested her head back against him; sitting down, she barely came up to his navel.

Helen had spoken to Gen in the afternoon, visiting him in his rooms when Attolia refused to believe the Eddisian queen had had no hand in the trial. When Helen had returned with puffy eyes, she had cleared their rooms but for her husband and told Sophos what Gen had done. Over the years, Sophos had watched, from near and far, the ways that Helen and Gen had recklessly torn themselves to pieces — sometimes literally — to keep the other safe, never asking or expecting anything in return. It always took a toll. The time they’d spent hunting for Hamiathes’s Gift had almost broken both of them, though it was not until many years later that Sophos had learned of Helen’s own worries at the time, how she’d been kept up at night, sick with the knowledge that her council had voted to kill her favorite cousin and she had been powerless to stop it. 

“Selene will be in to dress me for dinner soon,” she said with a heavy sigh. 

“No need to worry about that,” Sophos said, gently massaging the tension in her shoulders with his thumbs. Helen relaxed under his touch, rolling her neck. “Attolia has said there will be no formal dinner tonight.” 

Pausing in her stretching, she sounded confused when she said, “Surely the court will—“ and stopped abruptly, twisting to look at Sophos. “What did you do?” 

Trying for his best expression of innocence despite the creeping blush, he said, “I don’t know—“ 

“—Sophos, you are a  _ terrible _ liar.” 

The world’s worst liar, and he married into a family of the best he’d ever met. Sometimes it made him laugh, but sometimes it was wildly unfair. 

Sighing, he knelt next to Helen’s chair, bringing them closer to eye level. “You deserve—“

“—I told you I was fine!” 

“—you deserve a break,” he continued, a little louder, but no less gently. “One night to be a person and not a queen. That is all I asked her for. I spoke to our attendants. Selene is bringing us food now, and no one will bother us again. We can eat here, or in the breakfast room.” “Sophos…” she began wearily. 

“One night, Helen,” he said, cradling her face with one of his large hands, wiping her cheek with his thumb. “Cry to your heart’s content, take a bath, throw olives at unsuspecting bystanders on the terrace, sleep.” He kissed her briefly on the lips and waggled his eyebrows. “Make love to your husband.” 

She laughed, the sound a little wet as tears continued to fall. “I could pitch olives at Gen,” she said. 

“I could pitch something much heavier at him,” Sophos said. It earned him a real smile, and Sophos smiled back, tipping his forehead against hers. 

“I love you,” she said softly. There was a knock at the door. 

“And I you. Now, come on,” he said, standing and offering her a hand. “I’m starving, and dinner sounds like the least fun part of our night.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! Always on the hunt for prompts, as long as you don’t mind if it takes me a couple months to fill them! Come scream about QT with me on tumblr @ [storieswelove](storieswelove.tumblr.com) or [the Queen's Thief discord](https://discord.gg/JYJufae)
> 
> Posted [on Tumblr](https://storieswelove.tumblr.com/post/633081791033589760/open-up-my-heart-the-queens-thief-archive)!


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